U.s.: Papers Used For Illegal Immigration

But then the United States tightened its immigration policy toward Cuban nationals in 1995. Suddenly, Leal had a new market, officials say: Cubans willing to buy documents so they could sneak pass immigration officers.

Details about Leal's alleged operation were made public on Thursday when federal officials released an indictment charging him with 14 counts of document fraud.

According to the indictment, Leal bought valid documents from legal residents and U.S. citizens - usually for a few hundred dollars.

Then he would alter those passports, visas and other documents, and sell them for as much as $10,000 to fugitives and would-be immigrants coming to South Florida.

"His whole business is fraud," said Brian Duffy, an agent with the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service and lead investigator in the case. "He's an all-around scammer."

Federal investigators suspect that Leal made hundreds of thousands of dollars. The alleged document fraud operation dates to at least 1989.

"He would help whoever was willing to pay him," said Walter Deering, special agent in charge of the service based in Miami.

Investigators don't know how many people may have entered the country with fake documents.

But at least 30 documents were seized from immigrants who had used them to bolster their applications to enter the United States from Cuba, Deering said.

On at least one occasion, one Dade County woman's identification was used more than a dozen times - to create a false passport, marriage certificate, birth certificate and other documents.

The duplication was difficult to detect because the woman's name is a common one.

"What is worrisome is that we don't know who the people are who succeeded [in entering the United States) or how many," he said. The case underscores a new phenomenon for Cubans.

Until May 1995, Cubans enjoyed a special status, left over from the Cold War, that routinely allowed them to stay in the United States no matter how they got here - including being smuggled in.

Under an accord reached with the Cuban government, those intercepted at sea can now be repatriated. And only up to 20,000 a year will be allowed to immigrate through legal channels.

"Before you could just get here and stay," Deering said. "Now you need some kind of document. You're on much firmer ground [with a document) than if you just show up on a raft."

Leal, 54, was arrested on Feb. 23 at Miami International Airport after having spent about a year as a fugitive. He was handcuffed after disembarking from a flight from Cancun. Authorities suspect he had been hiding out in Havana.

"He had developed a pipeline to Cuba through Cancun," Deering said. "Everything came through Cancun."

Also in federal custody is Jorge Busquet, 58, a client of Leal's who is accused of reselling fraudulent documents purchased from Leal.

Leal faces 14 counts of document fraud charges. Busquet faces seven counts of similar charges. A trial date has not been scheduled.

The investigation began on Aug. 18, 1995, when FBI agents arrested an accused drug trafficker named Armando Alanis.

Alanis carried a real passport in the name of a real U.S. citizen - but it had been altered so that Alanis' photo was on it.

Alanis told investigators he purchased the passport from Busquet for between $7,000 and $10,000. He also received a counterfeit Social Security card and voter's registration card with the same name.

The passport was used to travel outside the United States to smuggle a load of cocaine back into the country.

The passport belonged to a citizen who told investigators he sold it to Leal in 1990 or 1991 for $1,000.

Another U.S. citizen, a woman, told investigators she, too, sold at least two passports - an original and a replacement after she reported the first lost - to Leal. She also sold Leal passports belonging to her two children, the indictment says.

It is relatively easy to traffic in passports because citizens who report their passport lost or stolen can easily obtain new ones.

"It's perfectly legal - but it could also indicate there is something wrong," Deering said. "That is how we begin some of our investigations, like this one."It is illegal to sell passports.

Investigators traced Leal to a company in Hialeah that was licensed to transport packages to Cuba. It is among the limited number of businesses in South Florida allowed to do so.

The president of the now-defunct company was Leal's wife, Mirta, 54, who authorities think may be in Havana.

When investigators raided Leal's home in March 1996, agents found a number of passports and passport-sized photos in the living room, bedroom and in closets. At Leal's business, investigators confiscated the forged passports, social security cards, identification cards, drivers licenses, immigration documents, voter's registration cards and birth certificates.

Authorities also recovered laminating machines, solvents, printing machines and other tools allegedly used to forge or counterfeit documents.

Another bit of evidence investigators found was a stamp insignia imitating those used by the Cuban Interests Section in Washington to grant extended stays to those Cubans on tourist visas in the United States.